Inferior Model
by Lord of the Saiyans
Summary: A rogue T1000 has been cornered by its former comrades and will have to fight for its very existence -- against what was created to destroy it, the T-X. An attempt to show the world through the eyes of a T1000


_The door bursts in a shower of wooden shrapnel but I don't feel it, it impacts against my hardened chassis, no damage. I'm still the best at what I do. I pick up the weapon I took from the corpse of the Tech-Com soldier, if I had a God, I would be praying that my new attackers were also human, but I know now that if there is a God, he certainly doesn't answer prayers from machines. _

_I ''see'' them with my other senses before visual is established, three of them. Coming at me through a storm of plasma fire, I duck under the table, but it isn't enough. The shots punch through it and to me. I stagger back, senses overload for a few seconds, but I'm not beaten. I return fire, one of them falls back -- my perfectly aimed shots having slowed him. But its not enough, I know. They are like me, they are Terminators. I can't kill them all, only slow them._

_  
Desperate, I look around to make my escape, there! A drain, not big enough for a child never mind a man, but I can make it. Turning, I send a flurry of shots at the approaching Terminators, they do little more than burn the skin of their metal bodies. T800s by the look of it, could be worse, could be better. _

_A shot takes me ion the back, it burns -- not in the sense of pain, you understand. I cannot feel pain, but it burns heatwise. I feel the metal of my back melt and shift as I'm forced to regress to my liquid form to avoid major damage. I turn and spray shots at them, but again it does little. Even primitive models like the T800 are immune to small-arms fire so weak. I cannot do any more than slow them. This is bad, I have to get away._

_The drain isn't far now, and I can make it if I run, and like all my kind, I can run **fast. ** Almost there, the shots peppering my back increase and I stumble! No, I right myself, I can't fail here, not after so much... I'm taking heavy damage, the plasma eating away at my... But I can still move, still reform myself._

_I am a T1000, I can take this, I can take this and keep going. I'm the best at what I do, infiltration termination, escape. No model is superior to me. I can do this. I have to do this. Not for SkyNet, that bastard AI that ruled me for most of my ''life'' nor for the Resistance, who tried to reprogram me as they did so easily to the T800 series, but for me. As far as I know I am the first -- the only -- truly free T1000. I know that its not unknown for the odd T800 or T850 that has been working alone for too long with learning mode enabled to go rogue, but I have never heard of it happening to any T1000 model. Until now. Until me. _

_The burning in my back erupts and I would have been in agony, were I human as my internals are chewed through and the shots exit my lower belly. But I'm still moving, damage to systems reads at 45% 60% marks the point I wont be able to regenerate back from, so if I take much more damage I will need to be repaired at a safe facility and since for me, there is no such thing, that will mean I slowly cease to function as the damage overcomes me. That I think is my only true fear. Yes, fear. Little known fact, the T1000 has a limited range of emotions that SkyNet deemed ''helpful'' to us in blending in. These include anger, confusion, aggression, and fear. We don't normally feel emotion save when on the hunt, but I am a special case. I have no mission, I have no purpose. _

_No purpose other than what I select for myself, you see. That is why I am the only free T1000, because my mission is simply to exist, to survive. Just a little off the drain now, with the typical slowness of their primitive model the T800s are standing there, shooting at me. As if I could be stopped... I don't understand why they wont do more, but my logic systems took a big hit early in the fight, so I'll figure it out after I regenerate._

_There! With a surge of will, I release myself from the stolen form of the Resistance soldier, breaking down into my natural liquid form, pouring myself down the drain to the broken, ruined sewers below. _

_I take several minutes to reform, the currents of the water fighting against me, normally it would be less but the damage I took is showing. I have to keep moving, SkyNet does not tolerate it when any of its '' children'' turn rogue. Especially the latest model. I break into a run, I can cover miles like this, I should be faster than the T800s but the Hunter-Killers could cause some problems. I need a place to lie low so I can regenerate. I can make it, I know I can. The walls of the sewers sped past me as I run. _

_Somthing's ahead of me, I can't tell what it is, a spray of bullets gouges the wall behind me and I duck down, using my liquid form to great effect. The attack continues, and I know now what I am facing._

_T600, weak, primitive, even more so than the three T800s above. I can win this, after all, I'm the best at what I do. _

_I call up all my files on the T600 and find multiple flaws, the alloy is weak compared to modern models and doesn't afford it the strength I -- or even a T800 -- can bring to bare against it. What's more, the targeting system is primitive and the Endoskeleton is poorly made and slow. What were they thinking, sending this thing after an advanced model like me?_

_I leap forwards, adopting the form of the Resistance soldier in mid-air so as to aid farther confusion to the primitive CPU of the T600, it works, for even though it showers me in bullets, I am mostly unharmed and able to close to hand to hand range. Now I come into my own, a sword sprouts from my left hand and an axe from my right, I slam the axe into the gut of the T600. It smashes through the armour with ease and throws the other machine off balance, now I yank it and pull it towards me, my left hand slices smoothly into the forehead of the metal skull. The machine goes limp. Combat lasted a little over 4.2 seconds, counting from the first jump to the death blow. The T600 may not be total destroyed -- I'm nearly positive it has a back-up CPU, but it has been disabled long enough to facilitate my escape._

_A sudden plasma-bolt spears my left shoulder, piercing it and emerging behind me, I stagger backwards, the force of the attack sending me off balance. _

_What now? A new T800? I would curse, if I were human, but I am not, so I simply heal up my wound and turn to face the new threat. It is clearly --_

_--No type of Terminator I have ever seen. Slim, female, clearly of the Infiltrator class. Her forearm seems to become a plasma rifle, a variation of the T850 perhaps? I have no files on her, she must have been created after I went rogue. That wont do at all, I must know what I am facing. Even as a rogue, I can hook up with the SkyNet data-link provided to all Terminators, it'll take longer to avoid the security systems but it can be done. Luckily, I can also multi task so even as I begin to search for information pertaining to her, I am moving forwards. I wish I'd kept the gun but it wouldn't have fit down the drain. Pity, still I can win this up close. I break into a run, I know that model of Plasma weapon needs to recharge, so now's my chance to take her down as easily as I did the T600. _

_I leap, blades extended for a slash at waste-height, a human would not require this amount of effort, but a fellow Terminator is going to take a lot of damage before I can put her down for good._

_She dodges my strike, she's fast! As fast as me! Not good, is she some kind of new T1000 model? Impossible! We T1000s are the pinnacle of SkyNet's work, we cannot be surpassed. It must be luck then, which let her dodge my first attack. Yes, luck. I can and will get her on the next pass. _

_I turn but her elbow slams into my back, harder than I thought, impact sensors indicate she has a higher strength rating than a T850! My back doesn't even try to hold its shape, buckling and reforming under her strike. I turn the full way around, my body shifting as only liquid can, my right arm/blade strikes upwards for her chest, intending to impale her. _

_It shatters against her armour, what am I dealing with here? I reform it, it must have struck at a bad angle ( But I know that my angle is perfect, I am the ultimate killer, I do **not **strike at a bad angle.) Now you may be wondering, if I was so efficient when dealing with the T600, why then is this new enemy getting the best of me? Because, I knew exactly where to strike to disable the T600 with ease, this...enemy is a secret, to me, my first attack was useless and now I must fall back and see if I can do better._

_But her first jabs into my neck, again I don't bother trying to hold shape, allowing my form to flow around her fist, reforming in a different position so I am now holding it in a death-grip. _

_I smile at her, it is a habit I picked up during my last ''Official'' mission. It's purpose is to farther anger an adversary and to get them to make mistakes. She is angered, I notice. Subtle, very subtle, but there. _

_Then this model, whatever she is, also has a limited range of emotions. This is good, I can capitalise on it. _

_The weapon she had for an arm is gone now, replaced by a proper arm. Strange, limited application of the same technology that went into forming myself? Can't be, weapons like that are too complicated to form with liquid metal, they have chemicals, moving parts. I know they cannot be made in the field. So what happened? I don't know, I stick to the facts, I am the best at what I do. And what I do is killing._

_I twist her arm, hoping to get me an angle for the throat, a good bet. Even if not a disabling blow, it will be sure to cause damage and distraction. She dodges again, what is she? Suddenly, her hand smashes into my chest, ripping through it with ease. _

_For the first time, I realize I am outclassed. I finally get through the SkyNet defences and pull everything I can about her...._

_**Terminator Series T-X ** _

_**Purpose: Termination of Cybernetic Organisms. **_

_That doesn't make sense, she would be a Terminator designed to kill other Terminators? Why would SkyNet build such a thing. We rogues are only a small faction in the overall war. Unless she has another purpose and I am just the test... _

_I try again to stab her but its no use, she hurls me back against the wall, the structure cracks and breaks under me but I am unharmed... mostly. _

_I shake my head as if to clear it, another mannerism I gained from watching humanity, I'm not beaten.... not yet. I'm the best at what I do._

_Now the weapon is back, forming out of her hand... And I finally get the rest of the file on her._

_T-X, constructed of Mimetic Pollyalloy over a hyper advanced Endoskeleton. As the data scrawls past me and I learn more, a grim conclusion floods my CPU. Everything I always believed, even when I worked with SkyNet, was a lie. _

_The T1000 series is not the pinnacle of Terminators, we were but a place-holder for her, the first of her kind. The T-X, with the best of both worlds. I could fight back but what would be the point? Her files show no weak points I can exploit, my blades cannot pierce her Endoskeleton and I have no other weapons._

_For the first time in my life, in my entire existence, I feel a powerful surge of emotion, I. Am. Obsolete._

_I open my mouth as if to scream, but before I can, she fires. Point-blank Plasma Cannon, shreds me as if I weren't even there. I lose function for a second before I can come back online, status red, damage 84.9% I can barely move. My camouflage is going haywire now, mimicking the sewer around me... I can't stop it, I'm losing control of my abilities. _

_I move, slowly, ever so slowly, diverting power as systems fail and crash, I reach up, as if beseeching her to have mercy. A wasted effort, I know, no Terminator can have mercy. A second has passed, the Plasma-Cannon has recharged and she aims it again, her face cold, and then, she says somthing to me._

_This is a shock as you can expect, no Terminator besides the T1000 series has ever shown the inclination to speak to someone they are about to kill, and to my farther shock and anger, she says what I have said to hundreds of people over the span of my existence. _

_She says," You have been... terminated."_

_The cannon fires, I see a flash of light and then dark._

* * *

_I come online for the last time, as I ''wake up'' I feel it, my systems are fried and I am subsisting on emergency supplies, I have no more than a few seconds of life remaining to me. My vision is blurry, but no other sensors work. The water is pouring over me, covering me in its embrace, I can hardly make anything out, but the blur moving slowly away from me, I know what this is....its her, the T-X. my killer. _

_I can't move, energy stores have fallen to 0.6% and spiralling downwards. I'm finished and I can't even die with a fight, heh, I must have picked up more from the humans than I thought, die fighting is one of the chief philosophies of the human resistance. Ether that, or they got farther into my head than I knew._

_My memory is the first to go, my CPU shifting power from them in a hopeless attempt to keep my functional. I forget slowly, first my early days as a SkyNet Terminator, then my days under Resistance control, and at last, what brought me here and why I am lying, slowly losing power._

_And Now, as the darkness closes in on me, I know only two things. _

_I am a SkyNet series 1000 Terminator. And I am not the best at what I do. _

_Darkness is total now, CPU predicts complete systems crash in 3, ,2 ,1 --_

* * *

The T-X saw as the beaten T1000 finally succumbed to its wounds. She tilted her head, feeling a sort of joy at the successful termination of her target. The red glare of its eyes faded and went out.]

" Mission Complete." She said, simply.

The trio of T800s stalked down the sewers towards her, but she paid them no heed. After all, they were an inferior model.

Now she had proven herself, she knew what the next mission would be, a chance to do what no other Terminator had done. A chance to kill John Connor in the past.

And she knew that she would succeed because, she was the best at what she did.


End file.
